Pope Francis faces conservatives’ wrath for reinstating left-wing priest

Pope Francis faces the wrath of right-wing conservatives after reinstating a priest who joined the revolutionary, left-wing government of Nicaragua's Sandinistas and once served as president of the UN general assembly.

Pope John Paul II suspended Father Miguel d'Escoto Brockmann from his ministry in 1985, as part of a broader crackdown on adherents of liberation theology - a school of thought he criticised for importing Marxist values into the church. The edict meant D'Escoto was, among other things, forbidden to say mass.

A brief statement from the Maryknoll religious order, to which the 81-year-old priest belongs, announced that Francis had lifted the suspension on August 1. "I am happy to be able to celebrate mass again," D'Escoto was reported as saying from the Nicaraguan capital of Managua. "I am really pleased."

A few months ago he wrote to the pope asking to "be able to celebrate the Holy Eucharist before dying". Bishop Enrico dal Covolo, rector of the Pontifical Lateran University in Rome, told the Italian daily that Francis's response did not mean he had taken a political stance and should be understood in the context of his emphasis on the importance of mercy.

But the right-wing US website Truth Revolt said: "The decision will likely anger most conservative Catholics."

After the Sandinistas overthrew the pro-US regime of Anastasio Somoza in 1979, D'Escoto became foreign minister in Daniel Ortega's first government, a post he held until 1990.